The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most important public gallery in Sydney and one of the largest in Australia.
The gallery's first public exhibition opened in 1874. Admission is free to the general exhibition space, which displays Australian art (including Indigenous Australian art), European and Asian art. A dedicated Asian Gallery was opened in 2003.
History
19th century
thumbnail|[[Garden Palace]]
thumb|The Art Gallery of New South Wales ()
On 24 April 1871, a public meeting was convened in Sydney to establish an Academy of Art "for the purpose of promoting the fine arts through lectures, art classes and regular exhibitions." Eliezer Levi Montefiore (brother of Jacob Levi Montefiore and nephew of Jacob and Joseph Barrow Montefiore) co-founded the New South Wales Academy of Art (also referred to as simply the Academy of Art) in 1872. From 1872 until 1879, the academy's main activity was the organisation of annual art exhibitions. The first exhibition of colonial art, under the auspices of the academy, was held at the Chamber of Commerce, Sydney Exchange in 1874.
In 1874, the New South Wales Parliament voted funds towards a new Art Gallery of New South Wales, with a board of trustees to administer the funds, one of whom was Montefiore.
The gallery's collection was first housed at Clark's Assembly Hall in Elizabeth Street where it was open to the public on Friday and Saturday afternoons. The collection was relocated in 1879 to a wooden annexe to the Garden Palace built for the Sydney International Exhibition in the Domain and was officially opened as the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 22 September 1880.
Montefiore was president of the board of trustees from 1889 to 1891, and became the director of the gallery in 1892, a position he retained until his death in 1894.
The destruction of the Garden Palace by fire in 1882 placed pressure on the government to provide a permanent home for the national collection.
In 1895, the newly appointed government architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, was given the assignment to design the new permanent gallery and two picture galleries were opened in 1897 and a further two in 1899. A watercolour gallery was added in 1901 and in 1902 the Grand Oval Lobby was completed.
20th century
In the Captain Cook Wing, the architect Andersons divided new from old with a wide strip of skylights in the main entry court. While in the old courts there was parquetry flooring, travertine flooring was employed in the new galleries for both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The modern need for flexibility in display layout was answered by the use of track lighting and precast ceiling panels designed to support a system of demountable walls. While the new galleries were painted off white, senior curator, Daniel Thomas, advocated a rich Victorian colour scheme to display the gallery's 19th-century paintings in Vernon's grand courts.
thumb|The left wall of Art Gallery of New South Wales
Bicentennial extension
Sixteen years later the 1988 Bicentennial extension was built on the Domain parkland sloping steeply to the east. Within the constraints of two large Moreton Bay fig trees, and with a substantial part of the accommodation below ground level, the extension doubled the size of the gallery. Space for permanent collections and temporary exhibitions was expanded, a new Asian gallery, the Domain Theatre, a café overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay, and a rooftop sculpture garden were added. Escalators connected four exhibition levels with the entry/orientation space. Four contemporary art 'rooms' were top lit by pyramid skylights. The space involves art from all corners of Asia, including Buddhist and Hindu arts, Indian sculptures, Southern Asian textiles, Chinese ceramics and paintings, Japanese works and more.
The aesthetics of the extension were described as "cantilevered on top of the original Asian galleries, the pavilion glows softly like a paper lantern when lit at night" and as "a floating white glass and steel cube pivoted with modern stainless steel lotus flowers". The extension added to the New South Wales Art Gallery, with the new space to house temporary and permanent exhibitions. In 2004 Johnson Pilton Walker won two awards for their design of the Asian Galleries extension, including an RAIA National Commendation in the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture category; and a RAIA NSW Chapter Architecture Award for Public and Commercial Buildings. Over A$16 million was granted from the NSW Government for this major building project – inclusive also of the Rudy Komon Gallery, new conservation studios, café, restaurant and function area, and a refurbishment of the administration area.
Sydney Modern project
thumb|The atrium of the 'Sydney Modern' extension
alt=Staircase into the new, underground Tank gallery space in a disused oil bunker at AGNSW.|thumb|Staircase into the new, underground Tank gallery space in a disused oil bunker.
A competition to expand the gallery as part of the 'Sydney Modern' project was won in 2015 by Tokyo architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA. The chosen design, which proposed a large extension to the north, was criticised on architectural as well as public interest grounds. Former architect Andersons described it as intrusive, 'colliding' with Vernon's sandstone façade and relegating his portico to a ceremonial entrance. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating criticised plans to significantly develop the outdoor spaces near the gallery for use as private venues as "about money, not art". The Foundation and Friends of the neighbouring Royal Botanic Garden objected to the proposed loss of green space and parkland in the adjacent Domain, requested a review and negotiated with the gallery about sight lines, transport, logistics and alignment of built structures.
The extension opened on 2 December 2022, almost doubling the gallery's exhibition space, to 16,000 square metres in total. The project cost $344 million in total, of which $244 million came from the NSW Government.
Collections
In 1871 the collection started with the acquisition by The Art Society of some large works from Europe such as Ford Madox Brown's Chaucer at the Court of Edward III. Later they bought work from Australian artists such as Streeton's 1891 Fire's On, Roberts' 1894 The Golden Fleece and McCubbin's 1896 On the Wallaby Track.
In 2014 the collection is categorised into:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art
<!---Yiribana Gallery redirects to this section--->
AGNSW did not have any Indigenous Australian art until the middle of the twentieth century. In 1948, it acquired a donation of bark and paper paintings from the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. Deputy director Tony Tuckson then started expanding the collection. In 1959 a series of 17 Pukamani grave posts from the Tiwi Islands were installed in the forecourt, which started to change public perception of Aboriginal art, as contemporary art. In October 1973 the Primitive Art Gallery opened, with Tuckson as curator. The first Indigenous curators were appointed in 1984.
Perkins worked on the establishment of the Yiribana Gallery, dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, which opened in 1994.
The AGNSW collection represents Indigenous artists from communities across Australia. The earliest work in the collection, by Tommy McRae, dates from the late 19th century. Included in the collection are desert paintings created by small family groups living on remote Western Desert outstation, bark paintings of the saltwater people of coastal communities, and the new media expressions of "blak city culture" by contemporary artists.
Selected works
<gallery mode="packed" heights="175">
File:John Glover - Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land - Google Art Project.jpg|John Glover, Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land, 1838
File:Arthur Streeton - Fire's on - Google Art Project.jpg|Arthur Streeton, Fire's on, 1891
File:Charles Conder - The hot sands, Mustapha, Algiers - Google Art Project.jpg|Charles Conder, The hot sands, Mustapha, Algiers, 1891
File:John Peter Russell In the Afternoon.jpg|John Russell, In the Afternoon, 1891
File:Tom Roberts - Bailed up - Google Art Project.jpg|Tom Roberts, Bailed Up, 1895
File:Frederick McCubbin - On the wallaby track - Google Art Project.jpg|Frederick McCubbin, On the Wallaby Track, 1896
File:George W Lambert - Miss Thea Proctor - Google Art ProjectFXD.jpg|George Washington Lambert, Thea Proctor, 1903
File:Hugh Ramsay - The sisters - Google Art ProjectFXD.jpg|Hugh Ramsay, The Sisters, 1904
File:Rupert Bunny - Summer time - Google Art ProjectFXD.jpg|Rupert Bunny, Summer time, 1907
File:E Phillips Fox - The ferry - Google Art Project.jpg|E. Phillips Fox, The Ferry, 1910
File:Elioth Gruner - Spring frost - Google Art Project.jpg|Elioth Gruner, Spring Frost, 1919
File:Clarice Beckett - Evening, St Kilda Road, 1930.jpg|Clarice Beckett, Evening, St Kilda Road, 1930
</gallery>
Contemporary art
The contemporary collection is international, encompassing Asian and Western as well as Australian art in all media. With the gift of the John Kaldor Family Collection, the gallery now holds arguably Australia's most comprehensive representation of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day. Internationally, the focus is on the influence of conceptual art, nouveau realisme, minimalism and arte povera. The Australian contemporary art collection focuses on abstract painting, expressionism, screen culture and pop art.
The National 2021: New Australian Art, the third in the series, was held between March and September 2021, featuring new and commissioned projects by 39 artists, collectives and collaborative groups. Featured artists included Vernon Ah Kee with Dalisa Pigram, Betty Muffler, Sally Smart, Alick Tipoti, Judy Watson, Judith Wright,
Brett Whiteley Studio
The Brett Whiteley Studio at 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills was the workplace and home of Australian artist Brett Whiteley (1939–1992). Since 1995 it has been managed as a museum by the Art Gallery of NSW.
VisAsia, the Australian Institute of Asian Culture and Visual Arts, was established to promote Asian arts and culture. It includes both the VisAsia Council and individual membership. The Brett Whiteley Foundation, promotes and encourages knowledge and appreciation of the work of the late Brett Whiteley. The Art Gallery Society of NSW is the gallery's membership organisation. Its objectives are to enhance members' enjoyment of art, and to raise funds for the gallery's collection. The society is a separate legal entity, controlled and operated by the Society Council and members.
|-
|align=center| || George Edward Layton|| rowspan="2" |Secretary and Superintendent ||align=center|1 January 1895 ||align=center|26 May 1905 ||align=right| ||
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|rowspan=2 align=center| || rowspan=2|Gother Mann ||align=center|1 July 1905 ||align=center|7 May 1913 ||rowspan=2 align=right| ||rowspan=2|
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|rowspan=6| Director and Secretary ||align=center|7 May 1913 ||align=center|2 January 1929
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|align=center| || James MacDonald ||align=center|2 January 1929 ||align=center|13 November 1936 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center|– || William Herbert Ifould (acting) ||align=center|13 November 1936 ||align=center|15 February 1937 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center| || Will Ashton ||align=center|15 February 1937 ||align=center|28 April 1944 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center|– || Hector Pope Melville (acting) || align="center" |28 April 1944 ||align=center|11 July 1945 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center| || Hal Missingham ||align=center|11 July 1945 ||align=center|3 September 1971 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center| || Peter Laverty || rowspan="6" | Director ||align=center|3 September 1971 ||align=center|30 December 1977 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center|– || Gil Docking (acting) || align="center" |30 December 1977 ||align=center|17 August 1978 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center| || Edmund Capon ||align=center|17 August 1978 ||align=center|23 December 2011 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center|– || Anne Flanagan (acting) || align="center" |23 December 2011 ||align=center|4 June 2012 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center| || Michael Brand ||align=center|4 June 2012 ||align=center|27 March 2025 ||align=right| ||
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|align=center| || Maud Page|| align="center" |28 March 2025 ||align=center|present || align="right" | ||
|}
Board of trustees
The board of trustees comprises ten trustees and the president, two of which must have knowledge of, and be experienced in, the arts. The current members of the board are:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! President
! Term begins
! Term ends
|-
| Michael Rose
| 1 January 2025
| 31 December 2027
|-
! Trustee
! Term begins
! Term ends
|-
| Sally Herman (Vice President)
| 1 January 2019
| 31 December 2027
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| Tony Albert
| 1 January 2020
| 31 December 2025
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| Anita Belgiorno-Nettis
| 1 January 2020
| 31 December 2025
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| Andrew Cameron
| 1 January 2020
| 31 December 2025
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| Paris Neilson
| 1 January 2022
| 31 December 2027
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| Caroline Rothwell
| 1 January 2022
| 31 December 2027
|-
| Keira Grant
| 1 January 2023
| 31 December 2025
|-
| Liz Lewin
| 1 January 2023
| 31 December 2025
|-
| Peter Collins
| 1 January 2025
| 31 December 2027
|-
| Emile Sherman
| 1 January 2025
| 31 December 2027
|}
Presidents of the board
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!#
!President
!Term
!Time in office
!Notes
|-
| 1
| Sir Alfred Stephen
| 11 June 1874 – 30 January 1889
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| 2
| Eliezer Levi Montefiore
| 20 March 1889 – 6 September 1892
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| 4
| Sir James Reading Fairfax
| 28 May 1915 – 28 March 1919
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| 5
| Sir John Sulman
| 11 April 1919 – 18 August 1934
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| 6
| Sir Philip Whistler Street
| 20 August 1934 – 11 September 1938
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| 7
| John Lane Mullins
| 23 September 1938 – 24 February 1939
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| 8
| Bertrand James Waterhouse
| 10 March 1939 – 23 July 1958
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| 9
| William Herbert Ifould
| 23 July 1958 – 1 July 1960
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| 10
| Eben Gowrie Waterhouse
| 1 July 1960 – 28 December 1962
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| 11
| Sir Erik Langker
| 28 December 1962 – 7 June 1974
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| 12
| Walter Bunning
| 7 June 1974 – 16 September 1977
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| 13
| John Nagle
| 16 September 1977 – 11 July 1980
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| 14
| Charles Benyon Lloyd Jones
| 11 July 1980 – 11 July 1983
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| 15
| Michael Gleeson-White
| 11 July 1983 – 10 July 1988
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| 16
| Frank Lowy
| 10 July 1988 – 31 December 1996
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| 17
| David Gonski
| 1 January 1997 – 31 December 2006
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| 18
| Steven Lowy
| 1 January 2007 – 31 December 2013
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|-
| –
| David Gonski
| 1 January 2016 – 31 December 2024
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| 20
| Michael Rose
| 1 January 2025 – 31 December 2027
|
|
|}
Popular culture
thumb|upright|220px|Coloured lights on the facade of the Naala Nura building. 2026
At the start of the film Sirens, Hugh Grant walks past paintings in the Art Gallery of NSW, including Spring Frost by Elioth Gruner, The Golden Fleece (1894) by Tom Roberts, Still Glides the Stream and Shall Forever Glide (1890) by Arthur Streeton, Bailed Up (1895) by Tom Roberts, and Chaucer at the Court of Edward III (1847–51) by Ford Madox Brown.
See also
- Bill Boustead, senior conservator 1954–1977
- List of national galleries
- List of largest art museums
- National Gallery of Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria
- Queensland Art Gallery
- Art Gallery of South Australia
- Art Gallery of Western Australia
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
References
Further reading
- Includes link to PDF of the article "Art museums in Australia: a personal retrospect" (originally published in Journal of Art Historiography, no. 4, June 2011).
External links
- Art Gallery of New South Wales Artabase page
- Virtual Tour of Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Virtual tour of the Art Gallery of New South Wales provided by Google Arts & Culture